Configurational analysis of access to basic infrastructure services: evidence from Turkish provinces

In many developing countries, access to basic infrastructure services, such as sewerage and waste disposal, varies considerably across different areas. In this study, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis identifies configurations of economic and political conditions (population density, population size, income and political participation) associated with good and poor access to sewerage and waste disposal in Turkish provinces. The findings suggest that there is a core configuration of conditions associated with good access to both types of infrastructure service—high income and high political participation. A single core configuration is associated with poor access to both types of service—low population density, small population size and low political participation. Other configurations are observed relating specifically to good and poor access to sewerage and waste disposal services, respectively. We theorise the different pathways that we identify, emphasising that economic measures to support development may offer the best prospect of improving infrastructure access

Managerial networking and stakeholder support in public service organizations

Resource dependence theory suggests that to function successfully, organizations must obtain certain resources controlled by actors in their environment. To do this effectively, managers often develop networking relationships with key stakeholder groups in order to make critical resources available. Managers in public service organizations, in particular, are frequently under great pressure to network with relevant actors from stakeholder groups in order to build support for service (co)production and legitimacy for strategic and operational decisions. To identify networking strategies which are conducive to stakeholder support, we explore the networking behaviour of over 1,000 English local government managers. Fuzzy cluster analysis identifies four distinctive, though inter-related types of managerial networking: technical, reputational, political, and tokenistic. The cluster membership functions from this analysis are used to examine the relationship between types of networking and stakeholder support in depth. The results of hierarchical regression analysis suggest that technically-orientated networking is the most conducive to stakeholder support, with tokenistic networking the least conducive

Innovation performance and the role of clustering at the local enterprise level: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach

This study, utilizes an innovative methodological approach, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), investigating the drivers of heterogeneous geographies characterizing English Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The fsQCA technique offers a novel configurational alternative to regression-based approaches investigating the effects of clustering in conjunction with firm-level innovation, university third-sector activity (TSA) and entrepreneurship, on LEPs innovation performance. The findings, offer contributions to the theories of industrial clusters and innovation, regional innovation systems, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurial university innovation within LEPs. First, supporting fsQCAs, no individual variable generates either a positive/negative innovation outcome. Second, while all positive innovation recipes include presence of the cluster variable, for negative innovation recipes, only one does not identify absence of clustering as relevant. Given that the cluster variable does not appear in any recipes without at least one of the other variables suggests activity concentration does not exist in isolation to generate innovation outcomes without other localized conditions existing, e.g. firm-level innovation. Third, there is evidence for the non-cluster-based aspects of knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship with respect to university activity and the entrepreneurial university concept. Instead, roles of entrepreneurship and university TSA, while important, appear to be more peripheral and geographically context specific

The role of entrepreneurship, innovation, and urbanity-diversity on growth, unemployment, and income: US state-level evidence and an fsQCA elucidation

The purpose of this study is to consider the differing roles played by combinations of dimensions of entrepreneurship, innovation and geography (here - urbanity-diversity) on United States (US) state level growth, unemployment and income. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) forms the primary methodology to investigate these potential roles. One important developmental feature of the analysis is the use of a novel fuzzy membership score creation process, undertaken to calibrate the considered condition and outcome variables. Moreover, fuzzy cluster analyses are undertaken, using the fuzzy c-means technique, on sets of constituent variables to produce sets of clusters interpretable to the relevant condition and outcome variables. A series of fsQCA investigations are undertaken across the different outcome variables of growth, unemployment and income. The main results of the study are that high growth entrepreneurship and innovation are key to economic growth but may require additional (though differing) supporting entrepreneurial activities and processes depending on the economic geography of the State. With regards to unemployment, it is Main Street Entrepreneurship that was consistently present for absence of unemployment causal-recipes and its absence in four of the five high unemployment causal-recipes, the absence of Urbanity-diversity was consistently shown in absence of unemployment causal-recipes and its present in three of the five high unemployment complex causal-recipes. For income, the presence of Innovation in all the high income causal-recipes and its absence in three of the four absence of income causal-recipes, Urbanity-diversity present in two of the three high income causal-recipes, and absent in three of the four absence of income causal-recipes. Overall, the results of the study suggest that for non urban-diverse states, the presence of Innovation, Growth Entrepreneurship and Main Street, and relative absence of start-up activity is of relevance in supporting positive growth, unemployment and income outcomes. For more urban-diverse states however, this combination of factors is less effective in generating positive outcomes across all three variables, suggesting trade-offs needing to be considered in these more complex economies. This study contributes to the theory of entrepreneurship and innovation by offering new insights into how different combinations of entrepreneurship, innovation and the urbanity-diversity affect growth, unemployment and income levels across different US states, consequently informing entreprenurship policy practice in terms of which policies work most effectively in which conditions. The novel applied and technical developments demonstrated in the study offer novel implementations on this area of research

Examining the existence of double jeopardy and negative double jeopardy within Twitter

Purpose: The theory of Double Jeopardy (DJ) is shown to hold across broad ranging geographies and physical product categories. However, there is very little research appertaining to the subject within an online environment. In particular, studies that investigate the presence of DJ and the contrasting view point to DJ, namely that of Negative Double Jeopardy (NDJ), are lacking. This study contributes to this identified research gap, and examines the presence of DJ and NDJ within a product category, utilising data from Twitter. Design/methodology/approach: 354,676 tweets are scraped from Twitter and their sentiment analysed and allocated into positive, negative and no-opinion clusters using fuzzy c-means clustering. The sentiment is then compared to the market share of brands within the beer product category to establish whether a DJ or NDJ effect is present. Findings: The data reveals an NDJ effect with regards to original tweets (i.e. tweets which have not been retweeted). That is, when analysing tweets relating to brands within a defined beer category, we find that larger brands suffer by having an increased negativity amongst the larger proportion of tweets associated with them. Research limitations/implications: The clustering approach to analyse sentiment in Twitter data brings a new direction to analysis of such sentiment. Future consideration of different numbers of clusters may further the insights this form of analysis can bring to the DJ/NDJ phenomenon. Managerial implications discuss the uncovered practitioner’s paradox of NDJ and strategies for dealing with DJ and NDJ effects. Originality/value: This study is the first to explore the presence of DJ and NDJ through the utilisation of sentiment analysis derived data and fuzzy clustering. DJ and NDJ are under-explored constructs in the online environment. Typically, past research examines DJ and NDJ in separate and detached fashions. Thus, the study is of theoretical value because it outlines boundaries to the DJ and NDJ conditions. Second, this research is the first study to analyse the sentiment of consumer-authored tweets to explore DJ and NDJ effects. This study also highlights the need to separate original tweets from retweets because our data shows that jeopardy dynamics differ in these different domains. Finally, the current study offers valuable insight into the DJ and NDJ effects for practicing marketing managers. Examining the existence of double jeopardy and negative double jeopardy within Twitter. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313056508_Examining_the_existence_of_double_jeopardy_and_negative_double_jeopardy_within_Twitter [accessed May 2, 2017]

Exploring the link between integrated leadership-in-government, and follower happiness: the case of Dubai

This study develops a concept of integrated leadership-in-government as a global and multifaceted construct for the first time in the Dubai and wider Gulf context. Leadership-in-government combines eight public leadership roles articulated in recent literature, as performed by managers at all levels within the government hierarchy. The eight public leadership roles are: accountability, rule-following, political loyalty, network governance, task-oriented, relations-oriented, change-oriented and diversity-oriented leadership. Data is gathered via a survey of over 900 employees in Dubai government organisations. Findings from the empirical analysis suggest that a manager’s performance of integrated leadership-in-government has a significant effect on employee happiness, as measured through job satisfaction and self-perceived performance

Indexing third stream activities in UK universities: exploring the entrepreneurial/enterprising university

Third Stream Activity (TSA) is increasingly important to UK universities and the wider economy, through innovation and entrepreneurship. Using data from the 2009/2010 UK Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey, this study investigates UK universities’ TSA. Through considering the data in original and logged forms, two interpretations of TSA are investigated, in relation to entrepreneurial and enterprising university concepts. Using principle component analysis (PCA) on both data forms, four factors relating to universities’ TSA are identified. A nascent indexing approach is employed to create sub-indexes using the identified factors, weight aggregated to produce final TSA indexes (one for each form of the data). Comparisons are then made between rankings of universities using the two versions of TSA index, and sub-indexes, illustrating differences utilising the entrepreneurial and enterprising university concepts. Important questions are raised for future government policy in terms of promoting interventions that drive towards different TSA types

ICT resources and use: examining differences in pathways to improved small firm performance

Purpose: The paper shows how small firms perceive the pathways through which access to and adoption of superfast broadband enabled resources strengthen business performance. Improvements to broadband infrastructure do not automatically lead to adoption of opportunities made available through the broadband resource. Then interventions can be used to alert small firms to new opportunities. However, the quality of interventions in terms of education and digital audits can be better targeted with information available on how small firms perceive the benefits from broadband access and whether these perceptions are reflected in business performance outcomes. Methodology: Data is used from the Digital Maturity Survey from Wales. We use principal component analysis and a dual stage cluster approach to show how SMEs believe they are benefitting from broadband access. These belief-based perceptions of broadband inferred business benefits are tested against business performance variables. Findings: The analysis shows variation in SME perceptions of the benefits of broadband enabled services. We reveal a cluster of firms which perceived routes to business value in terms of variables linked to security and risk management, and then more commonly held notions linked to communication, competition enhancement and productivity. Originality: While the research literature points to ICT resources (ICT investment and skills) and use (digital applications), leading to new to business value improvements, we suggest less work has sought to identify the critical themes identified by business owners in explaining how ICT resources and use tie to observed business performance. We identify these critical themes. Our analysis suggests that these critical themes in terms of business value benefits as perceived by business owners can be summarised in terms of communication and competition benefits, and security and risk related benefits. The findings have a series of implications for interventions in the space

Selection Criteria for the Radical Treatment of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

There are over 14,000 newly diagnosed rectal cancers per year in the United Kingdom of which between 50 and 64 percent are locally advanced (T3/T4) at presentation. Pelvic exenterative surgery was first described by Brunschwig in 1948 for advanced cervical cancer, but early series reported high morbidity and mortality. This approach was later applied to advanced primary rectal carcinomas with contemporary series reporting 5-year survival rates between 32 and 66 percent and to recurrent rectal carcinoma with survival rates of 22–42%. The Swansea Pelvic Oncology Group was established in 1999 and is involved in the assessment and management of advanced pelvic malignancies referred both regionally and UK wide. This paper will set out the selection, assessment, preparation, surgery, and outcomes from pelvic exenterative surgery for locally advanced primary rectal carcinomas